pictures from Bali

Finally after 6 months of no diving, I finally got a chance to get wet again. I spent 2 days in Tulamben and 3 days at Nusa Penida, Bali. I tried out the my new 105 AF-S VR macro lens and also got one new Ikelite DS200 strobe to use with a DS-125.

I had 7 dives at Crystal Bay for the Mola Mola and saw total of 5. The first 3 were spotted at 46m and it was way too dark and I did not really get close enough to get a decent shot. The 4th one was right at the surface. Of course it did not help that I was at 30m at the time. Finally on the last dive of the trip, I finally got a chance to get a few shots.

All in all, the water was way too cold at 21-22C in my 3mm wetsuit and I was glad at least some pictures came out ok

At manta point, sad to say, I had more manta encounter there in one dive than I did 5 days in Yap earlier this year!

harlequin shrimp's crop circle?

There are more pictures on my site and I will continue to add more photos over the next couple of days.

Great stuff, Boi.

I am off to Bali soon, very helpful stuff. Good to know what is around.

The nudi eggs under the harlequin shrimp look like you got a fingerprint on your slide!

Alex

Awesome Harlequin shot!

great stuff Boi, haven't seen you around here much lately

21-22c!?!?!?!?! In Tulamben!

I will need a drysuit dammit!

great stuff Boi, haven't seen you around here much lately

 

21-22c!?!?!?!?!  In Tulamben!

 

I will need a drysuit dammit!

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Mike, Talumben was around 26-27C but Nusa Penida was quite a bit colder.

I have not been around much lately. I changed my job recently, the pay is a lot better but unfortunately kept me away from diving as well

I like the picture of the harlequin shrimp a lot, it is wreally saying to me "what a wonderfull unusual underwater world ..."

26?!?!?! right, 7mm semi dry...

lol, forgot you dive with 7mm in Yap

You should see, a few people were diving in shorties in Nusa Penida. One guy went down only with a pair of speedo!

I start to think 3mm is definitely not enough for 26-27C

Nice photos, I'm on my way to Bali as well in the near future. Need som holiday from my hard work on the resort :-)

Do you know how long the Mola Mola stays around? Are they there all year around?

Mola Mola can be found year round. However the best time to see them is probably around now. My diveguide told me June-August, other said August, some other mentioned August to October. One dive agent in Thailand went so far to say that he guarantee sighting in his October trip, if no sighting, he will offer a live aboard trip to the Similans in December at about 20% of the usual cost as a compensation. I think it really is by chance. We had 2 groups of divers on two separate boats and sometimes we staggered the dive by about 5-10 minutes or started about 20m apart from each other and that made a difference whether one group or the other would see a mola mola (usually it was my group that missed out ).